The soft lead Foster slugs you see from RemFedChester have some lands and grooves on their surface that look like they should impart some kind of spin on them while going thru the barrel. Wrong. Those ridges and grooves are to allow the soft slug to compress in diameter as it passes thru any choke. Even old day single shots with full bore barrels would shoot soft Foster slugs like these just fine, because there was room for the slug to smooth thru the choke constriction whenever there was one. Millions of deer could attest that the slug went thru an full bore barrel just fine, and none of those barrels were ruined.

Guys, we are over-thinking this whole slug thing.

If you shoot 100% pure soft FACTORY Foster slug thru any choke it really won't damage any modern shotgun barrel.

If you cast a LEE slug that goes into a plastic wad it really won't damage any modern shotgun barrel.

Thanks fellas!

Click to expand...

Ah. Thanks.
Good info, especially for guys like me who are just getting started.
On another note, I found it interesting that the shot cup seemed to stay with the slug pretty much all the way to my target. The ground just in front was littered with them.
Sure was cool seeing the berm behind the target just explode with dirtclods thrown up by the impact.

Would putting the felt below my card have the same effect?
The shells I made I put the shot card at the bottom. Then the felt, followed lastly by the slug.

Click to expand...

some how the key is engaging in a way to keep the cup attached, that is what it designed to do so a rifled barrel can impart spin to the slug via the cup . Buy putting in a Nitro card you break that connection between the key and the cup.
A tell tail way is to look at the bottom of a spent cup you find by the berm. If it has a defining gouge at the bottom of the cup you know the key is engaging the cup.
I was under the impression that you had only a felt......the key would probably still engage positive enough to retain the cup.
The card you are using, if it is an over shot card it is too soft.
A nitro card is much harder and come in differing thicknesses.......they can also be peeled by the layer to custom fit.

If I were you, to simplify your shot column and gain some consistency in grouping I would ditch all felt and replace with hard Nitro cards....use over shot cards above your payload for helping gain height for your crimp with smooth bore shooting.
For rifled barrel remove the nitro card and replace the space with over shot cards on top of the payload

as long as you swap card and felt space for other cards or felts it doesn't matter what combo or where they end up as far a pressure goes, that all weigh about the same and as long as the same space is used then you still safe on pressure

some how the key is engaging in a way to keep the cup attached, that is what it designed to do so a rifled barrel can impart spin to the slug via the cup . Buy putting in a Nitro card you break that connection between the key and the cup.
A tell tail way is to look at the bottom of a spent cup you find by the berm. If it has a defining gouge at the bottom of the cup you know the key is engaging the cup.
I was under the impression that you had only a felt......the key would probably still engage positive enough to retain the cup.
The card you are using, if it is an over shot card it is too soft.
A nitro card is much harder and come in differing thicknesses.......they can also be peeled by the layer to custom fit.

If I were you, to simplify your shot column and gain some consistency in grouping I would ditch all felt and replace with hard Nitro cards....use over shot cards above your payload for helping gain height for your crimp with smooth bore shooting.
For rifled barrel remove the nitro card and replace the space with over shot cards on top of the payload

as long as you swap card and felt space for other cards or felts it doesn't matter what combo or where they end up as far a pressure goes, that all weigh about the same and as long as the same space is used then you still safe on pressure

Click to expand...

Oh, that makes sense. I was using the card and felt as a space filler.
Never occurred to me that it didn't really matter what order the components were.
I'll order some nitro cards from BPI and play around with those too.
It's supposed to be nice on Saturday, so I'm hoping to cast up another batch of slugs.
This is getting addictive. I was warned.

I see what you mean.
I loaded up 10 shells tonight.
The first few I tried, without a card, the BPI tool would hit the top of the slug. And although the crimp formed nicely, there was still some space between the rolled lip and the slug.
I crimped the remainder with a card on top.
I may try modifying the tool at a later date.

After 24 pages, I'm still confused. Why do you need nitro cards? To adjust the height of the slug and make it more secure in the hull? I'm hoping to remove the shot, melt, cast a slug and then return to hull and crimp.

Why the extra steps?

Click to expand...

Nitro cards does both. They help adjust the column height and it also serves as a solid base for slugs, esp Lee Key drives. You can also some them over your powder to stop blow back (kills accuracy too).

Accuracy of these slugs depend on it. I've done 100's of rds of testing in developing an accurate 1 oz Leed slug load.

The soft lead Foster slugs you see from RemFedChester have some lands and grooves on their surface that look like they should impart some kind of spin on them while going thru the barrel. Wrong. Those ridges and grooves are to allow the soft slug to compress in diameter as it passes thru any choke. Even old day single shots with full choke barrels would shoot soft Foster slugs like these just fine, because there was room for the slug to smooth thru the choke constriction whenever there was one. Millions of deer could attest that the slug went thru an full choke barrel just fine, and none of those barrels were ruined.

Guys, we are over-thinking this whole slug thing.

If you shoot 100% pure soft FACTORY Foster slug thru any choke it really won't damage any modern shotgun barrel.

If you cast a LEE slug that goes into a plastic wad it really won't damage any modern shotgun barrel.

Thanks fellas!

Click to expand...

That's not entirely true. I a lot of gun companies like Mossberg do not recommend shooting buck or slugs through extra full chokes.

This method of cut, dump, melt, and replace is great for "in a pinch". Don't expect any decent accuracy even at 25-50 yards.

From my experience, slugs are the most picky, finicky reloading you can do, not to mention trying to find the proper components combinations of gas seals, shot cards, cork and felt, etc. even powder and type of crimp can make or break you.

I've had good success with Lee slugs using slower burning powders like ProReach and Blue Dot.

Never had much luck with tapered hulls. I use PT1205 and 1215 wads for the sabots. The federal brown wads are awesome too. Just started playing around with those and it's looking good.
This group here is about the size of my fist at 75 yards.